The Convalescent

The Convalescent is the story of a small, bearded man selling meat out of a bus parked next to a stream in suburban Virginia, USA . . . and also, somehow, the story of 10,000 years of Hungarian history.

Anthony's compulsively readable debut novel stars Rovar Pfliegman... a peculiar, troll-like man: he is short and hairy, has not spoken since childhood, keeps a pet beetle and lives in the same broken-down bus that houses his meat business. But perhaps the most remarkable thing about Rovar is his precarious singularity. He is the last of the Pfliegmans and, by his own account, he is falling apart. Although he halfheartedly seeks treatment for his various ailments, he seems far more bent on fulfilling the destiny of self-destruction all Pfliegmans (according to Rovar) are subject to. Rovar's explanation of his family sprawls deep into the past, probing beyond his chaotic childhood all the way back to the origins of the Pfliegman clan in premedieval Hungary. Along the way, the narrative nods to all sorts of greats - Kafka, Rushdie, Darwin and Grass, to name a few. But Anthony's style - funny, immediate and unapologetically cerebral - carves out a space all its own.

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We’re an independent Australian publisher with offices in Brisbane and Melbourne. We publish a unique blend of fiction, non-fiction and poetry and specialise in writing that is original and engaged — much of it written by young Australian writers you’ve never heard of, but should have. br>

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